From the website of the Minaret of Jam Archaeological Project: “The Minaret of Jam soars into the sky in a steep-sided valley in central Afghanistan. It is hard to believe that such a magnificent structure could have been ‘forgotten’ by the outside world after the Mongol destruction of the site around it in the year 1221 AD. Then again, given the remoteness of Jam, perhaps it is not surprising that the minaret remained virtually unknown until the Russo-Afghan Boundary Commission ‘re-discovered’ it in 1886. Even then, only a handful of scholars and intrepid tourists ventured to the site before the Soviet invasion in 1979 and the subsequent decades of turmoil effectively placed it out of bounds.” On this rug, the two white figures in the sky represent military aircraft.